Childhood and the prose of the elderly

He is an old man, as long as I can remember, that is, he was an old man when the memory system was first installed in my mind, and he was seventy years old.

At that time, there was a gray stubble on his mouth. When he hugged me and put his face on my face, I could always feel my face being pricked. The top of his head is bald and shiny, with only some gray hair hanging thinly at the back of his head and below.

There is a pomegranate tree in the old man's yard. My mother said pomegranate trees have grown there since childhood. In spring, pomegranate is in full bloom. I always fantasize that there will be pomegranates on the tree in autumn, but I must be at my home in autumn, so I always envy my cousin eating pomegranates on that tree. The old man will pick some pomegranates and put them away for me to eat when I come, but by that time, the pomegranate peel has been wrinkled and dry like the old man's hands.

There is also a sheepfold in the old man's yard. There are always a dozen sheep in the sheepfold, big and small, and there are public females, all of whom are goats. The old man said the sheep were too dirty. The sheepfold is diagonally opposite the door of the old people's hall. The old man's yard is still very old. When he left the door of the hall, he had to walk down high steps to reach the yard and sheepfold.

The old man has a black hat, which he only wears when he goes out. Old people go out mainly for two things, one is herding sheep, and the other is going to the market. Of course, there are many more times to herd sheep than at the fair.

In spring, willows germinated, poplars germinated, elms germinated, and the old man drove the sheep out. After the old man drove the sheep away, black balls were left in the alley. After the old man drove the sheep home, the black balls in the alley became dense again. On the way back from herding sheep, the old man stroked a bag of money. Take it home and let the old lady earn a nest of money. Once, the old lady used the elm money brought home by the old man to paste the cake. I was there when the cake was put up, and so was my mother. The old lady said that I definitely haven't eaten elm money cakes, and I really haven't. The old man was feeding the sheep when the old lady put up the cake. That time, the old lady put salt twice, and finally the cake became salty. Only when it was salty did she know that she put more salt in it. The old lady smiled and said, "Oh, you are so old!" " "Is that all right? People in their 70s. The old lady is seven or eight years older than the old man. Knowing that the old lady put too much salt, the old man didn't say anything. The old man is always quiet and never makes a fuss about it.

The old man went to feed the sheep after eating the cake, and I want to go, too, because my cousin is going, and he wants to go because I'm here. That's what we used to do. So we have playmates. So the old man took us to herd sheep together. Put on his black straw hat and his sheep whip, and we will drive the sheep out.

The old man can whip the sheep, and the sound is like the wind, which can shake down the leaves on the roadside and bend the crops in the field. I grabbed the old man's whip and shook it, but it didn't ring. The old man looked at me and giggled. Cousin shook it with a sheep whip, which was useless. The old man still giggled. We tugged at the old man's clothes and asked him how to shake it up. Sounds like the wind, shaking the leaves and bending the crops. The old man took my hand holding the sheep whip. His hand was big and rough, and he grabbed my hand and the sheep whip in his hand at once. Then he shook it, and the sheep whip made another "snapping" sound, which sounded like the wind, bending the leaves. I shouted "I will, I will", but the whip still didn't leave the old man's hand. The old man still giggled.

My cousin chased the old man's sheep everywhere. My cousin separated the baby sheep from the mother sheep, and my cousin picked up the baby sheep. The old man said my cousin was "you son of a bitch". I followed my cousin "you little bastard", and the old man said, "I can say that about him, but don't you say that!" I said I understood. I need to hear what the old man has to say, so I won't say it.

There is something like a caterpillar hanging on the poplar. Cousin said, "What is this called in your village?" I said, "Call the sheep a Baba dog!" " My cousin laughs like a funny joke. I said, "What are your names?" He said, "Call a sheepdog!" I said, "Our village is called well!" Cousin said, "Only our family listens!" "We asked the old man which was better, but the old man still giggled and said anything. Cousin said: "There are rice bags in our village!" I said, "A rice bag?" Cousin said, "Come on! "Then he took me to the roadside and bent down to look for it, and found a plant with purple flowers. He said, "This is a rice bag!" "I asked the old man, and he also said it was a rice bag. He said that its seeds are as big as millet and can be eaten.

The old man drove the sheep into a dry ditch and sat down against an old willow tree. Sitting down, he took out his tobacco pouch, put on tobacco leaves, lit it, and smacked. The old man told us to look for him. We held out our little hands and put our hands on his mouth. The old man said, "Look who catches more!" "We put our hands together tightly and grabbed the smoke in his mouth, just like catching bugs. The old man said, "lock it up and don't let it get away!" " "Then we will turn it off. After he vomited, we held the cigarette in our hands like a treasure, and then, at the same time, we spread our hands in front of him and said, "I have more!" " "My cousin said," I have a lot! "Then the old man said," Do it again! "I put my hand over the old man's mouth, and the old man's stubble tickled my fingers. I thought I must catch more than my cousin this time, but the old man's smoke came out of his nose. My cousin giggled at the side, and I laughed with him, and the old man laughed with him until he was stubble.

The old man broke off a small stick for each of us and taught us to write and draw. As we scratched the ground, we chanted, and the words we wrote were deformed, and so were the paintings. We asked the old man, "Who looks good?" The old man looked around, then pretended to be embarrassed and said, "Everything looks fine!" " "I refused to accept it and said," Anyway, mine looks good! "My cousin said," Mine is beautiful! " "Then I cover my picture so that he can't see it. Cousin also covered up his own paintings and wouldn't let me see them! The old man said, "Two little bastards! "

We ran to the ditch where the sheep grazed and picked a handful of wild flowers, yellow, red and purple. We left the flowers to the old man, went back to pick them, and didn't forget to tell him, "Watch this!" " "When we went back, the old man was knitting a wreath, using wicker as a bracket and inserting yellow, red and purple flowers on the wicker. We crouched beside the old man and watched him weave a wreath. As we watched, wreaths floated over our heads. We ran around with garlands, shouting and laughing, just like running flowers and kites in the hands of old people. The old man smiled at us.

At dusk, each of us holds a willow branch in his hand, and the old man holds a sheep whip. We drove the sheep home together. My cousin and I picked some wild flowers and leaves on the roadside and stuffed them in the old man's big hand like babies. The old man held our child like a baby.

Walking into the hutong, we stood on tiptoe, afraid of stepping on the black balls scattered on the ground. When he got home, the old man drove the sheep to the sheepfold and fed them with water. Then he took a broom to the hutong to sweep the black eggs left by the sheep. He used a small basket to carry the black eggs back to the sheepfold. Black eggs can accumulate fat and accumulate fat to form crops. Then, the old man sat on the sofa in the main room and smoked. There are two sofas in the old people's hall. There is a small wooden table between the two sofas. There are tobacco leaves in the drawer of the desk. My cousin and I gave him cigarettes like him, and Ye Er smoked, too. My cousin learns quickly. I have never learned. My cousin always gets out when he learns. The old man said, "Little bastard, don't roll, you can't finish today!" " "I broke the old man's cigarette paper, but it still won't roll up. The old man doesn't blame me.

In summer, we seldom go herding sheep with the old people. The sun in summer is poisonous, and the old man is afraid of damaging us. We waited at home, found shabby bowls and pots, put them in the shade under pomegranate trees, put some wild vegetables, leaves or clods in the bowls, my cousin was my father, I was my mother, and found a small pillow as a doll. When we hear the bleating of sheep, we are not like our father or mother at all, but like dolls full of old people.

When it is too hot, the old man will take out his cloth bag and open it layer by layer, and then we will see what is inside. When we see what is in the bag, we will be secretly happy. He took out a few cents from the layers of open cloth bags, and we took them to the third house to buy ice cubes. However, we can't let the old lady know when we buy ice cubes. The old lady won't let us eat ice cubes. The old lady is afraid that we will eat bad stomachs, and even more afraid that we will spend money. Buying ice cubes in summer is a secret between us and the elderly. If the old lady finds any clues, the old man will cooperate with us to coax her. After coaxing the old lady, the old man smirked at us and we smirked at him.

The old man was very happy when the sheep gave birth to the lamb, and so were we. The old man said, "If you have money, you can buy a lot of ice cubes!" " "

During the autumn harvest, the old man will pick up some ears of wheat or edamame on his way back from herding sheep. The old man said, pick up the ears of wheat and replace them with peaches for us. The edamame picked up by the old man will be hung on the windowsill when he is old, and cooked in a bowl on the table when it is tender, waiting for us greedy monkeys to eat it. When we eat edamame, the old people always watch, roll a cigarette or smoke a pipe.

The clean old houses in the hutongs where the old people live are all adobe houses. In some uninhabited old houses, the courtyard walls made of adobe collapsed, so we went in from the collapsed place and picked dates. As soon as the autumn sun shines, the dates are watery and appetizing. We give the picked dates to the old man, the old man gives them to the old lady, and the old lady cooks them for us. The old man said, "Don't fool around with other people's dates! Did you hear that! " We laughed. When the dates are ripe, we are competing to eat them. The old man looked at us and said, "Little bastard!" "

In winter, the old man seldom goes out to herd sheep, but if he goes out to herd sheep, my mother will see him on the way to grandma's house, because there is no one in the field in winter, and there is no obstacle to block the old man with a black straw hat and a sheep whip, so we can see him at a glance. If I see him, my mother will stop the car, I will run there, and then he will come home with us. Because of this, every time I pass by the land where the old people often herd sheep, my mother will let me see if the old people are there. Every time there are several old men herding sheep in the fields, but I can recognize which old man is our old man at a glance.

If one day the weather is fine, but we can't see the old people herding sheep in the fields, we will definitely see our old people among the old people sunbathing in the hutong mouth. When we see the old man from a distance, my sister and I will shout from a distance. The old man can't see us clearly, but his ears are good. When he hears the shouts, he will know that his granddaughter has come to see him with her two daughters. Hearing the shouts, the old man will stand up slowly and look at us from a distance. When we approached, the old man said happily, "Yan Yan, winter is coming, winter is coming!" " Grow taller again! "No matter how tall he is, he said he has grown taller again, as if his mother hadn't come to see him for a long time. The old man took us home, and the old man who basked in the sun with him said enviously, "Go home and eat delicious food, my granddaughter is here!" "Come home!" Then the old man picked up his dusty mat and led my sister and me home.

A large part of my childhood was spent at my grandmother's house. This old man is my great grandfather, that is, my mother's grandfather. When I was a child, I liked herding sheep with the old people. I like the small yard with sheepfolds and pomegranate trees, and I like the old man very much. It has been five years since the old man died this year. In our life, there are always many people who can't forget it, especially people like the elderly. Whenever they think about it, their hearts are still warm. Sometimes memory is a safe haven, it is precisely because there is that person in memory that we can take shelter from the wind!